NASHVILLE — Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey opposes a fast-moving bill making the “Holy Bible” the official book of Tennessee, saying it “belittles the most holy book ever written.”
Ramsey told reporters on Tuesday that he had concerns about the measure passed earlier in the day by the Senate State and Local Government Committee with seven members voting aye and two abstaining.
The bill says: “The Holy Bible is hereby designated as the official state book.”
“It shouldn’t be,” Ramsey said. “I’m just adamantly opposed to that. The Bible is my official book. It is. It shouldn’t be put in the Blue Book with ‘Rocky Top,’ cave salamanders and the tulip poplar” tree.
The Blue Book is the official state book. Through various past actions, lawmakers have designated “Rocky Top,” a bluegrass murder ballad about moonshining, as one of the state’s official songs, and the Tennessee Cave Salamander the state’s official amphibian. The tulip popular is the state tree.